'If my son said something like that to me, I'd want to grab him by the throat,' judge says

Facing sentencing for molesting a 15-year-old girl, a Forks Township man had a few excuses to offer a Northampton County judge Friday.

At the time, Wayne Joseph Miller said, he was in a bad relationship and going through a rough patch in his life. With the teen, he said, he believed he was finally making somebody happy.

But Miller didn't get much further with President Judge Stephen Baratta. As Miller spoke, Baratta cut him off and said that if he was going to talk in that way, it was better that he say nothing more.

"You're just a predator. That's what you are, man," Baratta said. "Because you're not happy with your life, so you look to a 15-year-old to get your jollies off?"

With that, Baratta sentenced Miller to nine months to three years in state prison, and ordered him to serve an additional two years on probation. Baratta did so under the corrupting a minor and indecent assault charges to which the 41-year-old defendant pleaded guilty in April.

Miller was arrested last year after the girl's father contacted Palmer Township police to report the abuse, according to court records. Police said Miller molested the girl in December 2013 and January 2014, kissing her, fondling her and sending her lewd text messages that included a photo of his genitals.

Miller was caught after a relative of the girl secretly recorded the two of them alone in his car, records state. During the 35-minute recording, Miller had sexual conversations with the girl, and kissing could often be heard, police said.

In a written statement read by Assistant District Attorney Patricia Broscius, the girl said that since the abuse, she has had difficulty sleeping, feels worthless and struggles to trust others.

"What satisfaction did it bring him?" the girl wrote. "Why couldn't he have just left me alone?"

In sending Miller to state prison, Baratta took the recommendation of Broscius, who said sex offender treatment is unavailable at Northampton County Prison. Broscius called Miller more sophisticated than he appears, and said he selected his victim because she was particularly vulnerable, having come from a difficult upbringing.

Defense attorney Nuria DiLuzio lobbied for a county jail sentence for her client, noting that Miller has no prior criminal record and had been free on bail for nearly a year without problems. DiLuzio also highlighted Miller's past, in which he reported that he was sexually abused as an 11-year-old boy by an older woman.

"Maybe that explains why some of his behavior is inappropriate, to say the least," DiLuzio said.

Also speaking on Miller's behalf was his 63-year-old mother, Debra Mair, who called him a good person and fought tears over the prospect he would be incarcerated.

Baratta said that as a parent of three children, he could sympathize with Mair. But Baratta also asked her to respond to a claim her son made to evaluators: that he continued to abuse the girl to keep her happy, a statement Mair said she couldn't explain.

"If my son said something like that to me, I'd want to grab him by the throat," Baratta said.

Under the charges, Miller will have to register as a sex offender for 25 years.